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We'll help you plan your best summer yet with our annual roundup of can't miss events! Plus we've got a Face the Music interview with vocal powerhouse Josh Groban who is performing in Portland on 6/24. And as always, we'll help you have a terrific weekend with our hand-picked selection of events. Have fun out there!

Run away with the circus for an hour, free (then run back home)

Written by: Heather Steeves

Last year Kia-Melinda Eastman performed for The Circus Conservatory of America in Portland. John Patriquin // Press Herald photographer.

If you’ve wanted to float through the air — perhaps with, perhaps without ease — Circus Atlantic will let you try it free at an open house noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 8 at Portland’s Reiche Community School. While there, you can try juggling, tumbling and unicycling.

You may have heard there is a circus school going up at Thompson’s Point, but this is the recreational version of that — for those of us who want to play, but aren’t that serious about our clowning. The free session is a promotion for the school’s drop-in classes in Portland and Freeport. The drop-ins are four days a week and cost $20 for 90 minutes of instruction (or more, depending on the class) — no prior acrobatics/unicycling training required.

“It seems to be appealing to people of all ages, even older people are coming. Juggling is popular because it’s something everyone wants to do. But it’s more a commitment to getting in shape, doing strecthing, becoming flexible, being aware of your physical presence in a fun way. It’s not a competitive sport, it’s different,” said Marydale Abernathy, the vice president of Circus Conservatory of America.